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Dec 21, 2014
Somebody needs to tell these producers that it's not okay to replace character development and a real plotline with blood and brains spewing all over the place. Psycho-Pass 2 was literally gore galore, and I can't say I was too happy about it, either. Honestly, I saw more Lethal Dominator (ab)use in one episode than I did for practically the entirety of the first season, and the exploding heads and bodies things just kind of got lame after the first 30 times it happened...
So yeah, flying bloody body parts aside, I have to say that Psycho-Pass season 2 was a really big letdown for
...
me. Was there a single aspect of the original series that didn't go wrong in this season? As it turns out, the answer is no.
The plot continues along the same vein of the first season, but struggles and ultimately fails to encompass new ideas about the Sibyl System. The way things were set up in the first season, I was actually expecting Akane to do something about Sibyl in this sequel. Instead of that, all we got were a bunch of strange paradoxical theories and conspiracies that really had no bearing on the show's themes anyway. Jouji's speeches were so confusing and so incredibly irrelevant to the point that I wanted to spew blood everywhere whenever he started talking.
Actually, I take that back. The only part of the show that actually got me seriously wanting to vomit blood was the cast. Half the characters were boring as hell, and the other half were just ... there.
Like, come on: Saiga Jouji makes his reappearance for half of the episodes but it's so obvious that he was just stuck into the story so he could make the plot move. You have Hinakawa, Kagari's completely inferior and practically useless replacement, whose only defining moment was the scene where he called Akane 'big sister'. You have Ginoza, who's a complete disconnect from his character in the first season. He lost his personality along with his glasses, and has a grand total of about 20 lines throughout the whole show. And then you have Shimotsuki Mika, the one character that everybody wanted to strangle to death within the first 10 minutes of episode 1, and really didn't do anything except crap her pants in front of Togane a couple of times and cry a lot.
Togane was actually pretty interesting, up until they butchered his backstory and dragged him down with that mockery of a season finale. I have to admit, I already was slightly peeved at him from the beginning because he was obviously Kougami's replacement (and what was with Kougami's smoke-spectre visiting Akane all the time, anyway?) but besides having the highest recorded Crime Coefficient in history, he didn't actually end up doing anything that interesting.
And lastly, let's talk about Akane. Out of all the characters, she was the biggest disappointment for me - her character was stale, predictable, and showed no development throughout the series. Even after seeing her grandmother's ear in a box and discovering just how screwed up Sibyl is, none of her previous beliefs were even slightly shaken. Yeah, I get that she's supposed to be grown-up and badass, but that doesn't mean that she also has to have the emotional range of a rock. I wanted to see her scream, lose her temper, do something besides act like some frigid, stereotypically perfect police officer poster child that is definitely not the Akane that I know and love from season one.
The art, animation and sound were all average. The OP was pretty cool, but all it did was get my hopes up for the season, especially after that one shot with Kougami tied to the chair. Not sure what relevance that had to the show, seeing as we never actually saw him. Hmm.
If you liked the first season of Psycho-Pass, I would not recommend watching the second one. Besides feeling clipped due to its 11 episode length and having the most melodramatic season finale I've ever seen for such a hyped-up sequel, the characters are not up to par and the plot is confusing and over-complicated. Unless watching people burn alive to the tune of opera music is your kind of thing, I would recommend steering clear of Psycho-Pass 2.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Aug 22, 2014
To be quite frank, NGNL is nowhere close to being an anime masterpiece. Thinking about it more carefully, nothing about its characters or plot is particularly interesting or original, and certainly nothing worth boasting about - but nonetheless, I was attached to this series like some sort of gross, humanoid leech.
Admittedly, I am a slave to psychological games and long, complex strategies that have to be explained in full detail to people like me who suck at planning in detail. You know, when I first discovered Liar Game I thought I'd reached the pinnacle of my entire life - so I guess it's
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not too far-fetched to say that watching Sora and Shiro kicking everybody's ass with their superior game knowledge was pretty satisfying. My favourite episode had to be the one where they played Materializaion Shiritori; besides being intense and a cool spin on the game, I could actually follow along with what was happening, whereas chess and card games are completely lost upon me. The plot itself was stagnant and, to put it bluntly, really predictable - rather, it was the actual games that kept me watching. The finale was horribly disappointing and anticlimactic, and I really just have to say the Shrine Priestess is so absolutely extra because randomly making her pop in through the last two episodes really ticked me off...
The art and sound were both good. NGNL's pretty eye-catching and flashy. The visual appeal of NGNL is undeniable - everything's bright and colourful and magical, I guess, as befits a fantasy world. I was a little bit disappointed but not unsurprised to see that the Exceed were all your standard fantasy races - I was expecting a little more originality in that department. How come, out of all 16 different races that inhabit the world, we only get to see 4 of the most generic ones? The soundtrack was energetic and upbeat, which I appreciated, and both the opening and ending songs were nice and catchy. I really liked the opening in particular.
I really enjoyed Sora and Shiro together - I mean, who doesn't love genius sibling duos? As the main characters, I suppose it makes sense for the two of them to be the most likeable. I thought Sora's protective-older-brother moments with Shiro were pretty cute, to be honest. In comparison, Shiro plays the part of the adorable younger sister. Their abilities and strengths compliment each other and they basically work as a pair to cover all possible weaknesses - together, they form a supposedly unbeatable team called "Blank". These two are by far my favourite characters in NGNL. Everybody else lacked depth and were literally walking, talking tv tropes. Steph pissed me off in particular - sure, she's air-headed and cute and all, but her constant indecision and the fact that she changed opinions about Sora every three seconds was extremely annoying. I was curious to learn more about Ino and Izuna (I mean, what does a Warbeast Embassy even do?), but unfortunately not much was explained about their specific backstories so I guess that was a little disappointing too.
I don't regret watching NGNL. I personally think that it's worth mentioning that I really liked watching it even though more than half of its characters pissed me off royally. Leave the personality and plot deconstruction for later. NGNL is, at its simplest, something that is meant to be fun, so before you write it off as a mere compilation of cliches, give yourself a chance to enjoy its comedy, flashiness and blatant fanservice first.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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